Mercury-Atlas 7
The mission Mercury - Atlas 7 (MA -7 ) was a manned space flight within the U.S. Mercury program.
Crew
On November 29, 1961 after the successful flight of Mercury - Atlas 5 with a chimpanzee on board, NASA announced the crew for Mercury Atlas 6 and 7. Pilot for Mercury - Atlas 7 should be Deke Slayton. As a replacement pilot Walter Schirra was divided.
Long before cardiac arrhythmias were observed in Slayton, but not prevented him from astronaut training. But the public was informed on 15 March 1962 that Slayton due to a heart problem that flight could not take over. However, it was not replaced by the reserve pilot Schirra, but by Scott Carpenter, who had already been substitute for Mercury - Atlas 6.
Preparation
The spacecraft (serial number 18) was delivered on 15 November 1961 in Cape Canaveral. Slayton gave her the name Delta 7, as Carpenter took command, it was renamed the Aurora 7. The Atlas rocket arrived on 8 March 1962. The originally planned for the second week of April launch had to be postponed several times.
In principle, the same flight path as for Mercury - Atlas 6 was for Mercury - Atlas 7 provided: three orbits with splashdown in the Caribbean, however, more experiments should be performed.
History of the flight
Mercury - Atlas 7 was launched on May 24, 1962 at 7:45 clock local time, reaching five minutes later orbit. Carpenter conducted several experiments. Among other things, he should observe flares were fired in Australia, which, however, due to the cloud cover was not possible.
After three orbits Carpenter fired the braking rockets. The landing capsule was not aligned correctly so that the push did not go in the right direction. In addition, the ignition was slightly late and with less thrust than planned. All this contributed to the fact that Aurora 7 the predicted landing point missed by 400 km and came down outside the radio range of the rescue fleet.
About half an hour after splashdown reached the first aircraft Carpenter, who was waiting now on a life raft next to the landing capsule. After three hours, he was taken on board a helicopter that took off from the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. The destroyer USS Farragut, who was first at the landing site, remained at the landing capsule, until she was rescued by the USS John R. Pierce six hours later.
Importance for the Mercury Program
When NASA one was completely satisfied with the rocket and the spaceship. The second Mercury flight with three orbits was successful, so now could be thought to extend the flight duration. As before, the Soviet Union held the record with 17 orbits, a power to which the United States could not dare.
About the performance of the astronauts, however, they were not happy. Carpenter was during the flight constantly behind schedule and consumed in orbit too much fuel, partially due to incorrect operation of the controller. He was never divided again for a space flight.